Senate House North Block Project

Senate House North Block Project

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As work continues on Senate House North Block, the team have been focusing on the two balconies around the main atrium where paving slabs made of Portland stone are being laid. Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. It is an off-white building material known for its durability. The building’s courtyard façade is also made from this

Last month, the Senate House North Block project team visited the Senator Group Furniture Factory and Recycling Plant who are the main furniture supplier for the North Block. This furniture supplier was chosen because of their environmental and sustainability credentials, and nearly all of the furniture components are being manufactured in the UK. Here are some highlights from what the team saw at the plant: The majority of the furniture

Since we last updated you, our team has been working hard to get the seminar rooms and lecture theatres ready in Senate House North Block. Our new learning spaces are dynamic and state-of the-art, and will enhance the learning and teaching experience at SOAS. Take a look at our progress so far… The second floor seminar rooms will be the next to be completed, followed by the first floor.

If there’s one thing the Sistine Chapel’s taught us it’s to cast our eyes upwards once in a while; impressive roofs are everywhere from the architectural splendour of the Sydney Opera House to the feat of engineering above Wimbledon’s Court 1. And the North Block is to be no exception. The focal point of the new development will undoubtedly be the unique double-curvature glass roof over the central courtyard of

When devising innovative solutions to construction conundrums, SOAS is poles apart from other design and build projects. This week – magnets. In construction, the floor is usually one of the first things to be finished – which makes sense because otherwise the contractors would have to jetpack around the building site. However, once the floor has been laid, it has to be fitted with a protective covering to avoid the

Two cameras, a tripod and a remote control drone. Not what you’d expect to find on an ordinary construction site. But there’s nothing ordinary about a SOAS construction site. Last week, SOAS took to the skies, or rather a drone did, to capture shots of the North Block building and people hard at work. The drone reached lofty heights of 15m, hovering like a helicopter to take shots of the

There is a buzzword in building these days – a green, faintly fishy word. BREEAM. It’s an acronym for an international, sustainable standard of construction: the altogether less memorable, Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method. At SOAS – as anyone who studies or teaches here will know – we care about the environment. And over the last few years the School has set itself the goal of being greener. We’ve

How often do you notice a skirting board, or comment on how beautiful a light fitting is? Probably not often. These features are not exactly the most prominent parts of a room, nor do they usually inspire much interest. But for the Senate House development, every detail – no matter how small – must be carefully considered to ensure it is in-keeping with the heritage and style of the building.

Can you give us an outline of the project as a whole – what are the various stages of the regeneration going to include? We are doing a complete refurbishment of the North Block of Senate House. We’re stripping out all the non-original partition walls, reinstating original and new floor finishes and upgrading and replacing the ceiling finishes. We’ll be totally re-wiring the North Block, with new electrical and plumbing